I am on two sides professionally: helping companies to attract the most talented candidates for their positions, and coaching job-seekers to get hired. And from both points of view, I would advise using video interviews.
What does it give you as a tool?
For employers: it saves your time on hiring, enables you to get a picture of the candidate’s personality before the face-to-face meeting, allows you to check the necessary soft and hard skills online.
For job-seekers: it helps you to stand out from the crowd, to show your personality and share your experience, and — also — saves your time.
Although employers might adjust the questions and the time for answering, like at VCV, there are still a few basic tips that can help you if you are to record a video-CV.
- Talk straight to the point. Prepare to describe your experience and achievements in short, precise sentences focusing on the steps of your career that would be interesting for a particular employer. If you are recording a video resume for a CTO position, don’t focus on your internship in a preschool. Applying for a preschool teacher, don’t spend your recording time saying how good and promising you were as a programmer at school courses.
- Mind the image. Take care of the proper sound and proper looks. Stay calm and professional. Maybe put on your lucky shirt! A neutral and neat background is good, mess and sounds of drilling are not.
- Don’t rush. But if the employer allows you to rerecord the answers, don’t miss the opportunity! Take your time, choose the words, take care of the body language. Don’t move your head around, don’t prop up your chin with the palm of your hand or tilt your head when you speak. It can signal to the potential employer that you are bored or tired, lost in thought or uncertain. Nothing of that is good for you: a candidate everyone is looking for should radiate confidence and calmness! On the other side, don’t forget to be natural and don’t look like a doll: feel free to smile, blink and breathe 🙂
What if an employer doesn’t ask to record a resume? Be proactive! Record one yourself. This way you will certainly catch the recruiter’s eye more likely. If you send the application via email, mention that a video-CV is attached in the topic. And the recording takes minutes, literally.
Here is how it goes:
- Fill in a registration form;
- Attach a CV, tell a few words about yourself;
- Record!
- Get a link that you can share directly with an employer or place it on a job board.
Be yourself, be unique, and good luck!
